15.4.1

Limited Monarchy and Republics: 17th century: kings and ministers in control of central governments that sought to impose order by __. Not all states did __. In eastern Europe, the __ controlled a virtually powerless king. In western Europe, two great states—__--resisted the power of hereditary monarchs.

strengthening their powers

absolute monarchy

Polish aristocracy

the Dutch Republic and England

I.The Weakness of the Polish Monarchy
Polish History

a.Polish history: crown vs. landed nobility

i.Dynastic union of Jagiello, grand prince of Lithuania, with Polish queen Jadwiga= Lithuanian- Polish state in 1386, although it was not until 1569 that a formal merger occurred between the two crowns

I. The Weakness of the Polish Monarchy
Union of Poland and Lith

1.Union of Poland and Lithuania under the Jagiello dynasty= largest kingdom in Christendom à Poland-Lithuania played a major role in eastern Euroope and ruled much of Ukraine by end of 16th

2.Unique government system

a.Assemblies of nobles elected the king and limited royal power

i.Noble power enabled them to keep the Polish peasantry in a state of serfdom

I. The Weakness of the Polish Monarchy
1572

i.1572: Jagiello dynasty endedà new practice of choosing outsiders as kings, hoping for new alliances

1.Swede Sigismund III wanted to create vast Polish empire that would include Russia and Finland and Sweden

a.Failed and made Poland a weak, decentralized state

I. The Weakness of the Polish Monarchy
Elective Nature

a.The elective nature of the Polish monarchy reduced it to impotence

i.Sejm, or Polish diet= two- chamber assembly in which landowners completely dominated the few townspeople and lawyers who were also members

1.To be elected king, monarchs must agree to share power with Sejm (nobles) in terms of taxes, foreign and military policy, and appointing state officials and judges

I. The Weakness of the Polish Monarchy
Power of Sejm

a.Power of Sejmà disastrous results for central monarchical authority, for the real aim of most of its members was to ensure that central authority would not affect their local interests

i.Acceptance of the liberum veto in 1652, whereby the meetings of the Sejm could be stopped by a single dissenting member, reduced government to virtual chaos

I. The Weakness of the Polish Monarchy
What was Poland?

a.Poland was a confederation of semi-independent estaes of landed nobles

i.Late 17th c: it had become a battleground for foreign powers, who found the nation easy to invade but difficult to rule